Happy New Year

Happy Christmas

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

WNJS clip of episode 3

So, we have an entire episode 3 of We're NOT John Stamos recorded, but I don't know when I'm going to get around to animating it since we're working so hard on the new stuff. You've seen part one of episode 3. This is what I've animated so far of part 2. It's the funniest part anyway. Most of it is still with no animation software, but you can probably see the parts where I started testing the new software out. Enjoy!

PS. We've got two things in the works before episode one comes out: A New Years Resolutions teaser, and a character introduction piece, the latter being recorded this holiday weekend LIVE. The former already recorded via Skype.

Comedy Writing and Animating

I felt kind of bad that I'm not really working on a writing project at the moment. I'd go to the NJ writers group and they'd be like, "What are you working on now?" and I'd be like, "Uh, nothing. I'm taking a break to work on my podcast," which is kind of blasphemy, and I understand that because writing is really the most important thing to me out of all my projects. But I realized something last night. Now that Lindsey and I have decided to script all of our podcast episodes (except the features where we interview celebrities (which ones? Here, here, and here)), I realized that we are now officially comedy writers. We are writing comedy for broadcast. How cool is that? I wrote what I thought was a funny 5-minute piece about my New Years Resolutions (I have to do a playback to see if it actually is funny). And now we are going to write character intros, which I hope is funny. These guys here did an awesome job at introducing the characters on their podcast.


Also, I have animated a rough version of our new intro. Some of it needs to be tightened because parts are really slow and some too fast. The default has that motion blur on it, but I didn't realize it until I got to the last shot where I turned it off. I don't really like the blur--I think I will keep it off from now on. We will be auditioning for music to go behind it. Also, we have like 49 fans on Facebook already and we hardly know any of them. Very cool.

We're not Not John Stamos (Exciting Podcast News!)

Lindsey and I are armed to the teeth with new podcast goodies! We've revamped the show for 2011 and given it a new name: Plain Ketchup (We're just plain saucy). And we have

a new website !!! plainketchuppodcast.com
a Facebook Fan Page !!!
a Twitter account !!!
a YouTube channel !!!
a Vimeo channel !!!
a monthly e-newsletter !!!





All we need now is the blog (which will be supplied by Libsyn once we start paying them), a Kickstarter page for donations (which Lindsey is handling this week), and...umm, episodes. But the episodes are going to be fantastic because

1. We have a cool new structure--it's like a magazine without all that hard reading stuff.
2. I have new animation software that makes things look a little smoother (and takes less time to make).
3. We are having special guests! I've already gotten a yes from one of my absolute favorite comedians, my all-time favorite singer/songwriter, and I'm querying a comedian who Lindsey and I are both huge fans of very soon. We have a list of other potential guest stars, but we might hold off until we have episode 1 up so that they have something to see before deciding yes or no.

Goals: Raise enough money on Kickstarter to afford the web-space to be on iTunes, and sell schwag on CafePress.

Also, we're taking applications for regulars on the show at jaimeandlindsey@gmail.com. We're also looking for a theme song, and any volunteer collaborators are much appreciated.

So, please like us, follow us, subscribe to us, join us, bookmark us, digg us, stalk us, whatever it is you kids do. Spread the Ketchup! (Ooo, I just made that up, that was good.)

TV teasers

Dirk Gently trailer...

A scene...

Doctor Who Christmas Special trailer...

Writer Events

The ironic thing is that when you do anything worth blogging about, you don't have time to blog because you're doing those exciting things. Been very busy lately.















Here are pictures of author events this week. One author asked trivia questions and the winners get to accompany him to a Broadway or off-Broadway show. The other author screened a hilariously terrible Christmas movie (a 50 year old Mexican film about Santa and Merlin vs. Satan called "Santa Claus") which you can watch on YouTube:



I also led a free workshop on social media for writers at the local library this week. It went really well. I think I inspired some people to take the next step in their internet marketing. People asked a lot of great questions, and you can download the workshop presentation here.

Pictures and podcasts and complaining

1. I bought some art for my room. Look at this ridiculous goat with his tongue out. I'm going to laugh every time I look at it. [link]

I also bought a few of these because I think they're really really cool.

2. I am so over the Montclair bus system. Third time now that I've gone to catch a bus in the cold or rain and it just never came. I'm not an idiot--I can read a bus schedule, and the NJ Transit site says the same thing as Google Maps, but the buses just don't come, and I keep missing church. So this morning was a lovely walk,stand,walk in the cold to no avail and getting locked out of the apartment because Fed Ex said they left a package at the front door, which they didn't, and the door closed behind me, and thank god my upstairs neighbor was home because I had no coat, phone, wallet, or keys. Curse you too Fed Ex.

3. Very very very exciting news with the podcast. It's starting to take shape. It's going to have a new name because we don't want to be sued by John Stamos' people (turns out even celebrities names are legally protected). And we're collecting applications for some more regulars. We'll still have special guests, of course. There's going to be a website, blog, new Facebook page, maybe a Twitter, new YouTube, new Vimeo, e-newsletter, the works. Now we just have to think of a name.

Work videos

Imagine my surprise when sifting through all the publicity hits at work to find that one of the reviews used MY video for their online magazine. Here's the review with the video. So my video shot up to 133 views, which still isn't much, obviously, but it's better than what it had been. Too bad the quality of the footage is so bad.

Also, here's a recent piece of work I shot and edited. One of our authors' book signing:

Melissa's CD Launch

What a great weekend. First a Broadway show and then off to Philadelphia for Melissa's CD launch party. It was a fantastic concert! Melissa had a whole band and 50+ people showed up at the Tin Angel to watch. There were a couple songs in the set that I haven't even heard before because they're not on the CD, including a funny one about the parking enforcement. If you want to hear any of Melissa's songs, she's got them all up on her new website. Or just buy the CD. If you get it from digstation, she gets more of the profit, but it's on your normal music selling websites too.

I will be putting some of the video I shot up at some point. I shot the whole show, but I need to edit it and get it approved before putting it on the Facebook page, etc.

After the show, a bunch of us went out to the bar from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia called Mac's, and we took this picture:

I'm on the far left, then Len, then (below) Melissa, and Julie in front. Melissa's dad in the back fourth from the right.

Elling

I first heard about Elling when I heard one of my favorite actors John Simm was starring in it in West End (London). Curious, I watched the movie. I loved the movie, so I was thrilled when I got a mailer a couple months ago announcing that it's coming to Broadway, and with Brendan Frasier no less. Now, it was supposed to run for 20 weeks. It opened the Sunday before Thanksgiving and is closing the Sunday after Thanksgiving because they couldn't sell enough tickets. Come on--it's the holidays, give the show a CHANCE! Upset by the news that the show is closing, I rushed to get tickets for tonight's showing.

The story in a nutshell is about two roommates in the mental institution who, after years, are finally let out to live in the real world. They are set up with a two-bedroom apartment in Oslo. The story is about them trying to function in society, Kjell getting a girlfriend; Elling just trying to make friends, find his purpose in life, and live autonomously from his dead mother's memory. There is poetry and a road trip and a birth and the dreaded social worker.

It was great! I can't believe they want to shut it down. It's not a comedy in that it's pee-your-pants funny through the whole thing. It's more of little chuckles, but all the way through. The story and characters are very true to the movie, but I wouldn't be surprised if any of the actors said they hadn't seen the movie because they definitely make the characters their own.

I wasn't sure about Brendan Fraser at first. I do like him in all his movies. But he acts Kjell's character with a pause between each word rather than just speaking slowly, which I was skeptical about. But he really grew on me in the role as the play progressed and did a marvelous job. Bravo.

Denis O'Hare was stu-frickin-pendous as Elling. Oh my god, the way he slipped in and out of sanity just using his voice was great. I loved what he did with the mockery tone he would take when he got annoyed. I'm not sure Elling does this in the movie, but it's hard to tell because I don't know the language (it's a Norwegian film). Elling is very moody and just slightly delusional and very very funny. But you do feel bad for him because he's trying to cope with the loss of his mother.

Jennifer Coolidge plays Kjell's girlfriend (and some small roles). I recognize her from lowbrow comedies like Legally Blonde. She was good.

I'd forgotten how many great things there are in this story. Elling deciding to be a famous enigma by hiding his poems in boxes of sour kraut. Elling's inability to answer the telephone. And "I'm allergic to alcohol. It makes me do things I'll regret."

I'm sad that this play, Brendan Fraser's Broadway debut, is closing after only a week. But even though people know that it's closing and anyone who bought tickets for later dates had to get their money back, the theatre still wasn't packed. There were only about a dozen of us in the balcony, if that. They even told us we could go down to the first level, but we would have had to sit in back. We actually had pretty good seats, second row balcony in the middle.

There were actually quite a lot of people waiting at the Stage Door after the show. I wanted to, but it was really really cold and it just wasn't worth it. Plus, if it was anything like Lend Me a Tenor, it could be another hour before they came out and I didn't want to miss my train. It was weird going home because they said anyone wishing to switch to the Montclair train at Newark would have a 2 hour wait, which would mean that the 11:30 train wasn't coming, so I called a cab to meet me at Newark, but when we got there, we were all confused because the Montclair train WAS there, and I had to cancel my cab. But anyway. Off to Philly.

Dirk Gently - the movie (well, TV movie)

Oh my God, I've been waiting ten years for this.

Stephen Magnan as Dirk Gently, Darren Boyd as Richard MacDuff, and Helen Baxendale as Susan Way. Okay, I don't know any of these actors, but that's okay. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams is my favorite book, in my opinion even better than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Although there is a radio adaptation and even a stage drama, there hasn't been a movie or TV version yet. Now, thanks to the BBC, there will be. Well, there will be a pilot anyway, on BBC 4, but if it does well, they will make more episodes. And since the book's not very episodic, the plot is said to be "inspired" by the book rather than a direct adaptation. We shall see.

It sort of fits to do this now, since detective shows are SUPER popular, on the BBC too. I mean, even sci-fi and detective shows are in, like Torchwood and Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes. Though Dirk Gently definitely came first.

Kate Nash

This is the second time I've seen Kate Nash in concert, the first time being maybe three years ago in Minneapolis, and boy was this performance different from that one. Now, she seems much more grown up and punk rock, but maintains that sweet politeness between her hardcore songs. I do wish she would introduce some of them, but she didn't do much talking.

The opener was Peggysue. I'm not really sure what genre they are. Sort of folk, but from the UK, and not like the folk I listen to with harmonica and stuff. It was accordion-washboard-tamborine folk. But they weren't bad.

It was definitely more of a punk rock show than I think a lot of people were expecting. If this was the punk crowd, they'd be jumping around, moshing. But instead, it was a lot of young people (like REALLY young) just standing there, not even nodding their heads. I was standing next to this one girl my age and we're like "Wow, we feel old." There were kids in the audience, like fourteen-year-olds. It was strange because I thought they served alcohol in this venue.

Anyway, she played all my favorite songs: Mariella, Skeleton, Birds, and the new ones of her recent album as well. They had quite a light show going on here, much bigger production than in Minneapolis. But same as then, she did about half the songs on guitar, half on keys, and a little just jumping around with the mic. Can I saw how amazingly funny it was in Foundations because everyone is singing along, but that means you've got a crowd of New Jerseyers singing in British British accents. Hilarious. I think the best performance was Merry Happy, I suppose because the rest of the show was so punk. What I like about her is that she'll do sweet and then punk all in the same song, but Mariella and Skeleton rocked pretty hard live. It's good to have Merry Happy and Birds to tone it down a little.

It was a good show though. She went about 1:45, not including the opener. We were the last stop on her tour. She likes the vegetarian restaurant we have in Montclair. In the end, she threw drumsticks and some kind of booklets into the audience. One nearly landed on my head and everybody dove on me to get it. I just wanted to get out of the way!

More photos on Facebook.

This is my video, so you should watch it. It's only 2 and a half minutes long:

24

Happy brithday: Here's a book review.

I didn't do a whole lot on my brithday. Made cookies for the office and went to writers group. I presented this short piece, asking for advice on what this story should be about, because it's not really a story yet.

But last night, my friend took me to a show called Fuerza Bruta. It was the trippiest performance art ever! It was really cool, though. I liked the running man (video) 'story' the best. Basically, the stage is the same as the where the audience stands. The actors are all on wires and doing stuff above you and also in your own space right next to you. The actors are dancing with the audience right there on the floor sometimes. There's a mist/fog machine, and also a guy in a DJ booth who hoses the audience off every now and again. The stage hands also keep making the audience move to other parts of the room throughout the show to get them out of the way for massive set pieces like the treadmill and stuff.

So there's this running man on the treadmill and he gets shot a lot and has to set up tables and chairs that keep falling down and you pretty much just see him in these really frustrating yet daily situations until the end when he and two others are on a ledge and have to jump off into an exploding wall.

There's also this giant clear plastic swimming pool above us that is lowered down while about four girls are running around and jumping in the water. At one point they all start body slamming it and I swear it sounds like it's going to break. And it's inches from your head! People were actually putting their hands on the plastic and the actresses would respond to it. It was very strange.



Then we went out to a Danish restaurant, which had fancy things I've never heard of, but it was all very good.

Today I went to a social media class. I learned more than I thought I would, but to be fair, I didn't think I'd learn anything. It actually helped me with the way in which to explain things to authors, hearing someone else explain social media to authors.

Kate Nash concert tonight. More on that later.

Abusing my right to blog in order to show YouTube clips

I was watching Castle last night and I could have *died* laughing at this part:



I like Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. But seeing them together is hilarious. (Suggested by the Approval Matrix in NY Magazine) From The Trip


The Curse by Josh Ritter...with puppets

The Comic Strip

I went to the Comic Strip in NYC with my friend David this weekend. Lee Camp was one of the 10 comedians (I know, me going to a Lee Camp show, weird innit?). It was actually a pretty cool venue, but I'm very glad we didn't end up right in front because those guys in their slick gel hair and fur-lined leather jackets got picked on by every comedian. "What is this, West Side Story? Are you a Shark, is that it?"

There was a nice mix of comedians. Lee was funny as always, with some material I hadn't heard before. He starts out saying how weird it is that we're all here at a live, in-person show. These days it's like a shock to see someone who's not in a screen. But it's mostly funny because it's so true. The people sitting in front of me were texting through the whole show, and they're sitting dead front and center. One comedian had to pause the show to get them to promise to stop, which only lasted 'til the next guy came on. Even the audience was annoyed. That comedian makes fun of their Twittery lives: "Just let the world wonder for an hour where you went. 'Oh my god, an hour ago, he said he was going to take a crap and we haven't heard from him since. I hope he's okay!'"

Here's some Lee Camp at the Comic Strip. David was happy they have a proper comedy club brick wall.



The host was much funnier than the host at the Laugh Lounge. He started the show by asking everybody in the audience where they were from. Most were from other countries. Romania, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia. When I said I live in Jersey, he had to explain to the Scottish guy behind me not to go to Jersey.

Most of the comedians were pretty funny, but there was this one guy who wasn't invited, but he's apparently some big star, so the host asked if he wanted to do ten minutes. And I don't know if the guy was drunk or what, but it was the most disjointed, distracted set ever. When he saw that he wasn't making the audience laugh, he reverted to really loud Chris Rock impressions over and over. When he got off, we were just like, "What was that?"

There was this one guy, Ross Bennett. He was a little older with a whole different vibe than any other comedian. He gets out and he's like "Trust me, I'm just as disappointed as you. Every time I come out in the middle of these comedy shows, I don't feel like part of the act. I feel like I'm interrupting your party. Like this is your basement. And your parents are gone for the weekend. And I'm the neighbor." He was pretty great:


Also great was Jermaine Fowler:


There was also this guy who made fun of his girlfriend for doing the victory arm pump all the time. "The only time you should ever do that is if you're six years old and you just found out it's taco night." A few comedians later, this comedian comes out and she does the arm pump thing and goes "Tacos!" And I thought, okay, she's seen that guy's set before. Nope. That's the girlfriend. She claimed it was a total lie and she doesn't actually do that. The weird thing about her set was that most of her stories seemed to involve cannibalism in some way. Usually comedy is funny because in some way you can relate to it. When Ross Bennett does his thing about how now he's getting older, he makes noises when he doesn't want to: one grunt noise when he's doing something, and one sigh noise once he's done it. It's funny because you can relate. However, her jokes were like "Have you ever looked at a baby and really wanted to eat it?" Now, this would be hilarious if it was some kind of secret desire everybody has that she brings to light but I have a feeling most of us were like "Umm...no...?"

Then I missed my train because I thought it was at 11:30 instead of 11:11, so I had to wait for the 12:30 train to take me to Broad Street, then had to wait 'til 1:30 for the Montclair train, but the screens at Broad Street were frozen, so I couldn't tell if there was a train coming. Then I realized that TECHNICALLY it was Monday now and trains don't run that late on Monday. But the schedule made it look like 1am on Monday was still counted as the Sunday night schedule, but I wasn't sure. The only people around were this older couple making out on the platform, so I had to interrupt them to ask if the train was coming, which they explained in a few different languages that they didn't know. Luckily, the 1:30 train did come and I didn't have to call a cab.

Vlog => TV?

Don't get me wrong--I'm excited for Rhett and Link's YouTube shows to be picked up for a pilot for the Independent Film Channel, but this is the second vlog (out of like 4) that I watch that's been picked up for a TV show. I thought that vlogs are the next generation of media, better than TV because you can watch it whenever you want, you have input into what goes into it, and you can communicate with the creators and other fans. So it's strange the way TV is trying to drag YouTubers backward into the old TV mode like it's better or something. They'll make more money, yes, and it would be exciting to see them on TV, and it will probably increase their fanbase because there are still a lot of TV-watchers who don't watch vlogs. It just makes me think a little about the heirarchy of media and snobbiness of the old TV guys and the allure of their money. Hmm.

Good luck Rhett & Link, though. I hope the rest of the series gets picked up.

It's a jungle out there

I just got back from 5 days in San Francisco. My first business trip! It was the Audio Engineering convention "AES." There were four of us from HL: me, Kevin, Brad, and John. Turns out Kevin & I actually attended the same college at somewhat of the same time.

My cabbie on the way to the airport was actually invited to AES and used to live in SF. On the plane, I was in the last seat, and they ran out of lunch by the time they got to me, so it sucked not having lunch during the 6 hour flight, but I got to watch two hours of Doctor Who and an hour of Still Standing on Direct TV.

When I got to SF, I walked down the road a little before Kevin and Brad got in, their flight delayed 6 hours and without luggage.




We set up the booth, which took 4 hours. We ordered a big flat screen TV, and we couldn't find the box for it. But there was a suspicious little black box. We opened it to find this dinky thing in the picture. Looks ridiculous on that huge pedestal! And the DVD player didn't even work. Kevin tried unjamming it with a screwdriver to no avail. Can anyone say Spinal Tap Stonehenge?






Here's our booth when we were done. We went to Lefty O'Douls for dinner for some local flavors. It was right after the big parade for the Giants, so everyone was obsessing over the game on TV.






The next day, we started the show. I was in charge of setting up the author signings. Dave (left) was involved with the big exhibitor party we went to on Saturday night.






Bill's book on Quincy Jones was the highlight of the show, which is why we needed a TV, but we ended up using Brad's laptop. We had 13 autographed copies to giveaway and sell.






Moses signed some books on Saturday and Sunday. We hung out a lot over the weekend, but decided we needed nachos at 11:30 at night and got a little sick off them. I have to admit his iPad was the first one I ever used. The Twitter app was annoying me though.






Bobby gave 2 workshops on social media. I learned a lot from the workshops and even though they made us do the signing in the booth (because of some union thing), he did sell out of his social media book by the end of the weekend and had to put in some additional orders.






Friday night, I met up with a friend of a friend, Max, and we went for sushi. A plus for me being clumsy with chopsticks and launching vegetables into the air! Then we climbed up to the highest point where we saw the building from Vertigo (left) and strolled through China Town.





Saturday morning, I got up early and took a 20 minute walk down to the water to get breakfast at the farmer's market. I absolutely loved it. Everything was so pretty as the sun was just coming up.

Saturday, I drew 4 names for the winners of the raffle for signed Quincy books. Two of the winners were there, so it wasn't too awkward with lots of people standing around.

Saturday evening was the big party for exhibitors. Glow sticks. Electronic music. Funny lights. Dancing drunk people. Chatted with Moses most of the time. Wasn't really digging the scene. This is when we ditched the club for poison nachos and attempted to relocate the hotel in the dark.

Despite feeling a little sick, I worked the show on Sunday. Got up early to go to Walgreens for medicine. It was raining, and everyone was huddled outside, waiting for the store to open. One guy said it was like Black Friday for umbrellas.

Brad and John were gone, so it was up to us rookies, me and Kevin, to tear down. The crew took FOREVER to bring our boxes and it took 3 hours to pack up. But I think we got most of it right.

I feel like I complained too much in this post. It was an absolutely amazing trip and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Oh, and I made up a riddle: What's the difference between BEA and AES?

At AES, there's no line in the women's restroom.

MORE PHOTOS CLICK HERE

Just for fun, here's my favorite travel story. I think Jaeger showed this to me. I promise you'll laugh your pants off.

1. I am an alum. Look.

2. LittleRadge has gotten me hooked on TeeFury, which is a website with a genius sales plan. They put up a new t-shirt everyday, always with some kind of inside joke for people who are fans of something, submitted by various artists around the world. But you only have 24 hours to buy that t-shirt and then it's gone forever, so there's no loss in having people mull it over for a few days--they must impulse buy. Brilliant. And dangerous. This is the one I bought.

3. Did a video shoot at an author event. Will upload video when it's done. Here's a photo. Need to pack for California now.

If you have been...

The new Car Pool looks really cool.




Also. Doctor Who 2011 airs April 17th 9pm (EST) on BBC America. The Christmas special is obviously around Christmas though. Neil Gaiman's writing an episode. Mark Sheppard's starring in 2 episodes. Should be good. Don't know about Torchwood?

a couple quick things

1. Did a podcast test with Lindsey and Nicole. The outcome: it is possible to record using Skype and calling a landline or cellphone at the same time. It does cut in and out sometimes, which is going to be a hurdle.

2. I'm happy to hear that there will be one final episode of Robin Ince's Utter Shambles before the series is over--a special Halloween one. I so love the podcast as an art form. I'm going to start watching or at least listening to Robert Lewellyn's Car Pool again. I have a lot of catching up to do.

3. I accidentally kicked a rat today and it squeaked just like the toy ones.

Utter Shambles season recap/review

Alas, it appears season 3 of Robin Ince and Josie Long's podcast has come to an end. I thought it was a bit slow to start this season but it really picked up and became fascinating and hilarious. I hope they do more. Some highlights...

Ed Byrne was on Robin Ince and Josie Long's Utter Shambles week 2, which is brilliant because Ed Byrne is always great. Here is a photo of the three of them with Robin looking particularly gloomy.

Episode 5 was pretty great because they talk about Douglas Adams and Doctor Who and Douglas Adams writing Doctor Who.

I also really like Episode 7 because Jon Ronson's 12-year-old son gets to partake in the conversation and he sounds really intelligent, but it's also nice because when they reference people who lived in the 30's, they stop to explain who these people are to the son, which is helpful for me knowing what's going on as well. Plus they talk about which celebrity would they keep a secret for, which is a great game. Can I steal it? Also Jon Ronson (Men Who Stare At Goats) talks about this interesting article and documentary he did about false memories. I'm not talking about blocking memories but actually remembering things that didn't happen. Also, Jon Ronson was on Car Pool and talks about how Men Who Stare At Goats is based on a true story that happened to him. Now I want to see the movie. Did you know the military tried to splice the DNA of goats and spiders?

And my new favorite thing from Josie (with Robin doing some of the voices).

Here is the Alan Moore clip I was telling you about last time I talked about this podcast:

Danny Kaye

About a year ago, I blogged about a play I wanted to go to called Danny and Sylvia, the story about the early years of Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine. I waited too long and the play was gone, and I regretted not going. The play was back again this year and I made a point of it not to miss out on it this year. Today I went to see it with a friend from church. It was completely worth it.

First off, I was supposed to meet my friend at 4pm and she didn't have a cell phone with her, so when my train got delayed by half an hour, I couldn't contact her. I was on the train pulling out my hair, which was fine because everyone else around me was gritting their teeth and making faces too. Thankfully I had a book with me to help distract me. So one second I'd be snarling at the invisible conductor telling us it's all because of a stupid football game and the next minute trying to stifle laughing at Robin Ince's Bad Book Club. But more on that when I do my book review of it. Luckily, we were able to meet up and were not late for the show.

We had front row seats in a very intimate theatre, St. Luke's, so we were just a couple feet away from the actors. Except the point where we were inches from Brian Childers when he got off the stage and sat in the lap of the lady two seats to my right. It was part of a number where we as the audience were playing the role of the audience at a night club Danny was performing at. He is singing and flirting with this old lady (the average age of the audience was like 85) and he turns to her husband and pushes him aside and says "Get out of here." It was hilarious.

Basically the show is the history of how Danny and Sylvia met and their relationship as a couple and in business, with the emphasis on the business. It was really interesting because I watched this documentary (seebottom of post) the other day and it has this very glamorous depiction of Danny's life and his marriage. But the play shows how much they argued, how uncomfortable Danny was with Sylvia running his whole career, and how he wasn't even sure he was in love. When she decided they were going to get married, he ran away and hid in a hotel room for three days before calling and telling her he couldn't live without her. He was extremely hesitant about the whole thing though. He also did the London Palladium without her, which really made her mad and almost broke up the relationship, but he wanted to prove that he could do something on his own and that some of the credit for his success was his own. I am assuming the creators the play did their research. I don't know how much was fictionalized.

The play was a combination of songs written for the play--it wasn't just a guy pretending to be Danny Kaye and sing all his songs, it was an actual story--and classic Danny Kaye songs. For one song, he even encouraged the audience to sing along because people knew it, and they sang along. The play begins with The Maladjusted Jester, my favorite song! And then he quickly recaps the pellet with the poison. He does an impressive Tchaikovsky, Ballin' the Jack, and ends with an amazing rendition of Minnie the Moocher.

Brian Childers plays Danny Kaye. Overall, he was pretty good. His voice doesn't sound like Danny's to no fault of his own, but occassionally it sounds exactly right. And he definitely definitely nailed the accent. Oh and that classic Danny Kaye laugh! The hair was a really obvious wig which distracted me, but maybe it's because I was so close to the stage. There was some dancing, but he had to wear suitcoats the whole time and he was sweating enough as it was, so it's probably good they didn't have him do too much. His singing was great--not exactly like Danny Kaye, but close.

Kimberly Faye Greenberg plays Sylvia Fine. Aparently she was in the TV show Buffy, but we don't know as who. I don't know what Sylvia was like, but the acting and singing was good. And she definitely comes across as headstrong and brilliant.

Funny thing I learned:
Danny Kaye (Kaminsky) worked briefly for Sylvia's father and drilled holes in the wall with the dentist drill and her father always talked about that mess to people, so when they first met at an audition, she recognized his name.



Oh, and if you want to watch a Danny Kaye film, take your pick. They're all here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Huilifoj

Today and forward

Look what I made today.

And here's a short story.

I am going to California in November. I've never been to California before. Adventure!

I'm seeing Danny Kaye this weekend. Okay, so Danny Kaye's dead. But I am seeing Brian Childers.

Speaking of plays, I just got this thing in the mail for 45% off Elling on Broadway, which is coming to NY in November starring Brendan Fraser. Waitaminute. I'm not on anybody's mailing list. Who knows that I like Elling? Is somebody up to something? Anyway, go rent the movie.

In November, I am also seeing Kate Nash and going to a social media for authors class. On the same day.

Just things to look forward to.

Going Places

Melissa's CD has arrived in the mail!
Going Places is Melissa Clampffer's debut album. She has that deadly combination of being an awesome songwriter, awesome singer, and awesome pianist. Definitely check her CD out.
You can buy it on DigStation now,
and very soon on CDBaby and iTunes, I believe. And if you don't trust me, just listen to "Please Come Home" on her MySpace page. Then you will want the whole album.

Oh, did I mention that I did the album art? I did the front cover, the back cover, the CD itself, and the thank you page.

Melissa also has a new website that's just getting off the ground at http://www.melissaclampffer.com/.

I'm excited to go to her CD launch in Philly. She's super talented, and I just love these songs!

I have also created a Facebook Fan Page for her, so check that out for some fun stuff.

I also made this promo vid:

Book Launch in a Bar

Last night, we had a book launch for one of our authors Keith. It was in a bar on the lower East side of Manhattan. Loads of people came. They had Beatles playing on the radio and A Hard Day's Night playing on the screens. It's a Beatle themed book, obviously. They sold out of all their books. All in all an A+ success.

Keith's sister Lori took some photos: (left) Keith signing copies of his book. (below) Mike (on the right) one of my co-workers and the editor of this book enjoying himself at the party.

Podcast Episode 3 Part 1

Episode 3 part 1 of The We're NOT John Stamos Podcast is up now. This is not using the new animation software yet. I did get some free music from Lindsey though.

If for some reason you're not getting sound on the embedded video below, here is a direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFhVuXdWfMk

Small things

I'm excited to be going to Philly at the end of November to attend Melissa's CD launch concert. More about that when I get the CD in the mail.


Currently: Animating episode 3 of the podcast and editing my novel from last year's NaNoWriMo.


Book launch party on Tuesday. Looking forward to it.



There seems to be a real life Burbank with a Baedeker going on over here. As you see, the fan page seems to be by Josh Joplin, but some posts are by Mr. Henry. Can I have my idea back? EXAMPLE POST:

Josh Joplin i can't do the self checkout lines anymore! i refuse to check my self out! -- Mr. Henry
August 5 at 2:40am · Comment · Like · View Feedback (10)Hide Feedback (10)
Jon Van Order, Lidia Hasenauer and 2 others like this..

Josh Joplin What are talking about? You don't even shop for yourself. you have poor mrs. himmelman pick up all your "essentials" - which by the way adds up to a weeks worth of groceries.
August 5 at 3:08pm · .

Edward Hodgins Mr. Henry does have a point though, in the past didn't stores pay cashiers to scan and bag groceries? Now we are expected to scan and bag on our own? Where is that money going? I have not noticed any price drops. Another thing...does the laundry detergent go in with the ice cream or the bags of cereal?
August 5 at 4:52pm · .

Tim Pendergast I perfer to use the self checkout. I'm better at it than of most of the cashiers and I can actually put more than one item in a bag.
August 5 at 6:43pm · .

Victoria Lange Cameron It totally depends on how long the cashier lines are.....
August 5 at 7:47pm · .

Josh Joplin Once again, Josh you have it all wrong: Mrs. Himmelman does only get me the new essentials: eggs, milk, sugar, coffee, bagels, a few chops, tuna, some deli meats soda and seltzer, fruit, vegetables, orange juice, and few other odds and ends... and i've already told you this but 80 is the new 60! --Mr. Henry
August 6 at 9:34am · .

Lidia Hasenauer Does Mrs. Himmelman deliver on the west coast?
August 6 at 10:00pm · .

Birdland

Last night was Cast Party at Birdland, which is a Broadway-themed open mic night. This happens every Monday night, but last night was the only night they'd be promoting a book that I'm the publicist for. The guy who wrote the foreword, who coincedentally is also one of my authors, gave out some books to people who answered trivia questions correctly. Also, the performances were amazing! Everything from hits like Singin' in the Rain and Georgia on my Mind to lesser known comedic numbers. One guy even played the violin and piano at the same time--outstanding. And then there was one woman who I can't even describe properly, so I took some video for you (below). She played the piano well. But the only lyrics to the song she wrote were "Calamity Jane" over and over for ten minutes before the host had to cut her off. It was the strangest thing and I couldn't help but laugh myself to tears. But almost every single person who performed is a star--either on Broadway or Off-Broadway or even Australian TV. Including the actor who currently plays Lurch in the Addams Family on Broadway. Such amazing talent. Everyone had a really great time.

Here's some photos.

More videos on Facebook

Idiot Abroad - now playing

We're two weeks into An Idiot Abroad. It is at least as funny as I would hope it would be, and I did have high expectations. The best bit in episode one is Karl eating a toad and trying not to puke. India's a good episode too. It's all on YouTube.

My YouTube Account

I now have 76 videos uploaded to my YouTube account. The most popular with 26 comments and 12,422 hits (?!) is Holloway Road. I'm not sure why, but it gets massive traffic.



I think I may start a separate account for the podcast once we start getting some guests on. I have one special guest already agreeing to do it, which I'm very excited about. And Lindsey and I think we've got this Skype thing figured out, though the quality's not perfect. And I'm starting to get a hang of the animation software, but I'm terrified they're going to charge me twice because instead of letting the 30-day-trial run out, I just went online and bought it and it said if you don't call to cancel your trial, they'll charge your card and you get to keep it. I can't seem to get into contact with customer service, so they'd better have canceled my trial. Anyway, tangent.

Also, just uploaded a new video to my YouTube account here:

The Mythical Shoe Has Arrived

You can stick your finger up the bottom of my Chucks and touch my sock, so I decided to buy new shoes. And what shoes did I buy? Mythical shoes, of course! They come with a guitar pick--who can resist? The first 5 hours were extreme comfort, but then the back started pushing on my Archilles tendon, so I need to get one of those things that pushes your heel forward.

Week with Jenny & Melissa

Jenny and Melissa came up from SC to visit for the week. We had a ton of fun. Yeah, there was a lot of transit mishaps, but everything else was great.

They were supposed to fly into NYC and get to my place by 11:30pm on Wednesday, but because of a plane delay, the subway running really slow, and the conductor telling them the wrong train to get on, they didn't arrive to my place until 3am (1 plane, 2 taxis, 2 subways, and 2 trains later).

I had to work on Thursday and Friday while they explored the city, but Friday night, we were able to go to the open house at my work where they had a thousand people from the city looking at our new green building. There was free food, artwork, and live jazz with a 9-year-old drummer. All very suave and rich, but it was fun. Then we went out for frozen yogurt and watched Hot Fuzz.

Saturday, after checking out the farmer's market in Union Square, we went to a Broadway Musical called In the Heights with Jordin Sparks (solo clip of her in the musical) from American Idol. The story was okay, but the singing and dancing was great. Very talented people. We all really enjoyed it.

We went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and went downtown to the Laugh Lounge for some live comedy. The MC and the first comedian were starting out pretty rough, but Lee Camp was hilarious as always. We had to leave early to catch the 11:11 train back to NJ, but the F train was unexpectedly down, so we ended up missing the train and having to take the 1:20 train. So we got back around 2am and had to get up at 5:30am so they could catch their cab to LaGuardia. Transportation was just bad this week. But everything else we did was tons of fun.

Podcast news

I need to tell you some new things regarding the We're NOT John Stamos podcast. Lindsey and I have been chatting a lot and we're ready to make this thing bigger. We had our first three episodes, but now we're readying to increase quality by me getting better animation software and by inviting guest stars.

Software
I tried Flash and after an hour, I couldn't get the green ball to move across the screen. I tried Anime Studio and in half an hour, I got a cartoon girl to dance around my screen. I think I'm going to buy this one.

Guests
We'll try to get some guests of funny people that we know to start off with in while we're working out the kinks of our program. Then we're going to up it to YouTube stars and comedians. Maybe even other people like musical guests--who knows. I wrote a nifty press release. Lindsey and I are compiling lists of guests as we speak. Assuming Luke and Nicole are still game, it will probably be the four of us plus a guest.

Skype
The problem is that the four of us are scattered across three cities, so we'll need to use Skype. Who knows a cheap way to record Skype conversations? We also have to make sure that all of our computers have decent enough microphones or else it will sound bad. This also means that our guests will need good mics on their computers. I wonder if I should buy a cheap but decent Skype mic/headset to UPS to our guests to borrow and then ship back. These are all things we have to work out before letting any special guests on the show.

Social Media
We're on Facebook: www.facebook.com/werenotjohn
We're on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/channels/werenotjohn
We're online: http://werenotjohn.blogspot.com/

I'm trying to get it on iTunes but it seems...complicated

In the days ahead

So excited for this week which will include a Broadway play, a stand-up comedy show with my favorite comedian, an open house thing at work, and most of all Jenny!

But as I sit here, her plane's been delayed for an hour because of rain and a crazy person they had to force off the plane. I told Jenny I'd turn off my interdimentional bubble so that I could occupy the same space and time as the rest of the world to make it easier to find me, and it worked! A minute later, the storm left and they re-boarded the plane. Not kidding! Yay.

Things that made me laugh this week

1. Dad's latest YouTube creation

2. Diaolog in church:
Pastor: What are some other planets in our solar system?
Kid 1: Jupiter!
Kid 2: Mars!
Kid 3: California!

3. I feel really terrible for laughing at this. I know it's wrong. But the similarity between these two photos, especially with Ricky wearing sun glasses. I'd post a link to Ricky Gervais's blog here, but he doesn't have individual posts (someone needs a lesson in social media). He was annoyed that the media caught him and Karl out for a walk, but when he saw the picture, he couldn't believe his luck. Here's the photo they took. And here's another photo Ricky posted.

4. On a similar note, Karl Pilkington and Warwick Davis in a room together in this video.

5. Robin Ince's new blog.

6. Walter on Fringe. I haven't really gotten into Fringe yet. I'm trying. I think I'm a bit spoiled by Torchwood and all those spooky investigative kids shows I used to watch. But Walter makes me laugh.

7. The Wal-Mart Song by Rhett and Link

Podcast trailer

I made a trailer for The We're NOT John Stamos Podcast so we can get some guest stars. It's basically a few clips of episodes one and two. There's a Facebook Fan Page, website, and I'm thinking about using the Vimeo community and iTunes.

Also

This video is backward. Way to go, Rhett and Link. That is awesome.




Also, Lindsey has a new blog. Link in the doobly-doo (sidebar, for those of you who don't speak nerd).

Also, I read some excerpts of Burbank with a Baedeker at open mic night.

Also, Lindsey and I had an exec meeting about the podcast and want to invite celebrity YouTubers and other generally awesome people to guest-star on our show. But we need to look credible, so "like" us on Facebook. Also, I want to download the 30-day trial period for Flash to see if it is worth buying. This might make my animation process go faster and maybe even suck slightly less.

Also, I just booked a killer book event for October 4th at Birdland. Quiz night is going to be encorporated into Cast Party, which is a Broadway themed open mic night. If you're in New York, check it out.

Weekend with Melissa

What a super weekend! Melissa came to visit from Philadelphia and we spent most of the weekend playing in the city. We went to some markets, had goats milk ice cream, I got my own private concert of Melissa's songs when we went into Guitar Center (I will tell you all about her CD and my involvement in it when it is on sale), we got free dinner for finding a roach in the pasta (we should have told the waitress we didn't want the full New York Experience), and went to see Let's Have a Ball at the Upright Citizens Brigade. These guys were so hilarious. And one of them I recognized from TV (2 Guys and a Girl, Tenacious D, among other things). After the show, we hung out in Borders, waiting for our train. I started reading the third Hunger Games book, which I suppose I will end up buying at some point. Then I had what I can only think of as an anxiety attack for absolutely no reason, which was basically when I went to sleep, every time I started to fall asleep, I would jolt awake. That was annoying until 5am.

On Sunday, we went to the Brooklyn Book Festival. Lunch was White Castle, which I have not eaten before. Melissa was very excited because they don't have them in Philly. They don't have them in Wisconsin either. Before it started raining, we wandered the festival, browsing the tables. Jill from Archipelago did a talk on the International Stage (see photo: she's in blue on the right). And then just before leaving, we went over to the Freebird tent for Eric's book signing and said hello (see photo below).

Then it rained, so we decided to try to get Melissa on the earlier bus, which meant standing in the rain for an hour, and the guy still didn't want to let her on the bus! But thankfully another guy came along and let her on. I went back to my apartment and passed out for two hours. What an exciting weekend.

I'm leading a workshop

I've just signed up to lead a workshop for the evening of Dec. 9th. It'll be a how-to workshop on social media for authors (and un-published writers). I've been plugging away at this blog:
http://socialmediaforauthors.wordpress.com/ . My first real blog meant to be read by people I don't know. Exciting. I'll probably just keep adding to it a couple times a week until I run out of ideas, and then add things as they come, for social media is always changing.

Also, Melissa is coming over tomorrow from Philadelphia. Excited!

Idiot Abroad Episode 0

Sky 1 did a 20-minute preview episode for An Idiot Abroad (Karl Pilkington's travel show). You can watch it here until YouTube takes it down for violating copyright laws. Funny stuff.




Part 1


Part 2

The Play's The Thing

Went and saw a play tonight. Great all around from the acting to the staging to the beautifully written language. It's called Bright Images and it was just here for one night only. I think I may see that Danny Kaye play in Brooklyn that I didn't get around to seeing last year.

After the play, I went to an Itlian restaurant with the director, playwright, and their families and had lovely chat--music and art and spirituality. It was a refreshing night out. But I've had caffeine after 3:00 and may never sleep again. It's 12:30am, so happy labor day.



I didn't mention this before because I was just so annoyed, but my favorite Barnes and Noble--or at least a tie with the one in Union Square--is shutting down because they can't afford the space anymore. Hey, realtors: If the richest book store in America can't afford your space, who can? It's B&N Lincoln Triange. Yeah, this is where I met Zoe Caldwell and Spike Lee and various other people. They have such a great event space. I was envious of the guy who's in charge of organizing all their events (practically one every day some months!) because that would be a really fun job. But now they're taking it away. Boo.

Cemetery Junction

I saw Cemetery Junction today. This is the first Ricky-Gervais/Stephen-Merchant film. Boy could you tell it was theirs. From listening to their sense of humor in their podcasts to watching extras, this film oozed of their fingerprints. Not that this film is a comedy. There are quite a lot of funny moments--almost all of them inappropriate because it's a contrast between the immaturity of the youth they're trying to leave behind and the respectable adult world--but it's a drama. It's a somewhat autobiographical drama about Reading, the town where Ricky Gervais grew up. The premise is that there are these few young adults who are feeling trapped in this tiny little town and want to make it in the real world, but are somehow stuck in this rut that doesn't allow them to leave. It's interesting knowing that this is about Ricky's hometown because he did go from a very modest background to being ultra rich and successful. And yet, he's not saying that it is good or bad to leave your tiny town that you've never set foot out of, because some of the characters in the movie stay in Reading for good reasons and some leave for good reasons. You get this sense in the end that it's not about staying or leaving, but it's a personal thing--you need to do what is best for you.

It's hard to really give an in depth review of this film because it does exactly what it says on the tin. You can watch the trailer. It's not hiding anything. It doesn't make the movie look better than it is, but it also doesn't hide any surprises. It holds together. No plot holes or character inconsistencies. Little bit of drama. Little bit of mildly crude humor.

Lot of good actors. Haven't seen any of the main characters in it, but Ralph Fiennes plays the boss, Ricky Gervais plays the dad. You also get a cameo from Stephen Merchant and one shot of Karl Pilkington. The cops are Steve Speirs (Extras) and Burn Gorman (Torchwood).

Worth seeing once at least.

You can click the link above for the trailer. Here's part of the blooper reel. (This scene did not end up in the movie, by the way.)